Brittni Hamilton grew up on the lanes of the Rochester, N.Y., suburb of Webster. She earned first-team All-America honors in each of her first two seasons bowling for the Commodores before being named the Female Amateur of the Year by the Bowling Writers Association last year. Hamilton and her VU teammates earned a bid in the 2012 NCAA Championships (April 12-14 in Wickliffe, Ohio) for the seventh straight season.

On growing up around bowling:
"My parents were into bowling when I was younger. My mom used to work on this bowling show back home, so I've been bowling since I was born. I celebrated my first birthday on that show."

On having three older brothers:
"It was fun being the youngest. They all bowled when I was growing up, but they were not as serious as I was. They're very supportive of me and they come watch me when they can, or they're watching online if it's live-streaming on the computer.

"I do remember my brother Josh was bowling in an adult-youth league with me, and I beat him in one game. He actually used to work at the bowling center, so he knew the people working, and when I beat him they announced it over the speaker system and let everybody know that I beat him. That was pretty funny."

On rolling a 300, which she has done four times:
"The first time I shot 300 was in high school, back in my sophomore year (2006). It was pretty amazing to shoot it in high school, and then to shoot one in college was even better, to have my teammates behind me like that was pretty awesome. It definitely doesn't get old. You're nervous every time that it happens. It was an amazing experience, and to have my team behind me was the icing on the cake."

Black and gold shoe coversMade by Brittni's mother, Nancy Hamilton, in numerous color combinations; the black and gold variety are earned by Commodore bowlers in practice.

Columbia 300 OmenUsed for entirety of the fourth 300 game of Hamilton's career on Saturday, Feb. 4, at the Prairie View Invitational in Arlington, Texas.

On nerves in her first perfect game:
"I really don't remember when it was in the game that I got nervous back in high school. I threw an awful shot in the ninth frame and got lucky that it struck. I was so young, and I was so nervous. In high school, everybody stopped and they all came around the lane and were watching, so I was extremely nervous."

On the difference this time around:
"We were doing a really good job of focusing on the game. We weren't really paying attention to the score, we were just focused on winning the match. It was the ninth frame when I realized I had the front eight. I got up for the ninth shot and I was like, `Wow, I could shoot 300 here.' The ninth frame was, again, probably my worst shot of the game, but it was still pretty good. I got lucky that it carried. In the 10th frame, I just took it one shot at a time and finished it out."